November 2025

Thank you one and all for participating in our 3rd conference. We are grateful to all who helped make the event such an exciting one. Truly, it was quite the grand and memorable gathering!

A special thanks goes out to Jim Jatras, who is now on the Fellowship board but at the time of the conference was not; he was merely a friend of the Fellowship who wants to see his beloved Orthodoxy flourish in the South. So, Jim took the reins as lead planner of the event which turned out to be our biggest conference yet!

Moreover, we are appreciative of the heartfelt support and guidance of Metropolitan Jonah, as well as the hard work and care of the good folk at St Herman’s, especially Jo Lu Terrell (who organized the Friday historical outing and spearheaded Saturday’s catering) and Tony Talbert (who made our eye-catching promotional graphic designs). What lovely people there are in Stafford, Virginia!

Of course, we couldn’t have pulled it off without our phenomenal speakers (whose presentations are being released slowly but surely on our YouTube Channel) and all of our 200+ attendees. Y’all are the best!

With gratitude and love in Christ,
Your friends at the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship

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Please join us for another Fellowship conference, this time in beautiful
Stafford, Virginia, on Saturday, September 6, 2025.

The all-day event will be held at historic Aquia Church starting at 9 a.m., with Vespers services that evening and Divine Liturgy the following morning at nearby St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church which, along with the blessing of Metropolitan Jonah, is hosting this year’s conference.

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❥ Speakers & Panelists:

Met. Jonah (Paffhausen) is rector of St Herman’s and is also abbot of St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki Monastery in Spotsylvania, Virginia. His Eminence also serves the Holy Archangels Orthodox Foundation. In 2008, he became the first Orthodox convert to be elected as primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and since 2015, Vladika has been a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

Rebecca Dillingham published the blog Dissident Mama for eight years and a podcast under the same name for nearly five. A native of Richmond, Virginia, she earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently serves as operations manager for the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship, which she helped to co-found in 2021.

Jay Dyer, host of the Jay’s Analysis, is an author, comedian, and podcaster known for his deep analysis on Hollywood, geopolitics, culture, philosophy, and theology. The prolific content creator and Tennessee native has also hosted The Alex Jones Show for the past three years, and has been featured on influential platforms like Tucker Carlson and Timcast and in discussions with some of the world’s top debaters.

Richard Hines was a former member of the House of Representatives in South Carolina (1972-1976), the Eastern, Southern, and Midwestern Director of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), and presidential appointee under Ronald Reagan. He is also the founder of Save Southern Heritage, which focuses on monument protection and preservation.

Jim Jatras, author of “I Tried to Warn You,” is a retired DC-based attorney, political analyst, media and government affairs specialist, and unapologetic “unReconstructed Byzantine” and Virginia gentleman. He formerly served as a senior foreign policy adviser to the US Senate Republican leadership, and before that served as a diplomat in Mexico, the Office of Soviet Union affairs, and the Office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

Buck Johnson is the host of the Counterflow Podcast, a thought-provoking show which explores the intersections of faith, culture, and dissident politics. Buck is a longtime firefighter, a professional drummer, and a native Texan.

Protodeacon Brian Patrick Mitchell, PhD, is a widely published scholar of Orthodox theology and Church history. A former soldier, journalist, and Washington bureau chief, he holds a PhD in theology and an MTh in Orthodox studies from the University of Winchester. The author of several books, including Origen’s Revenge: The Greek and Hebrew Roots of Christian Thinking on Male and Female and The Disappearing Deaconess, Fr. Brian has lectured at numerous universities and seminaries, and continues to write on topics at the intersection of faith, culture, and tradition.

Fr. Turbo Qualls is the rector of St. Mary of Egypt Serbian Orthodox Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He is an iconographer and is also spiritual director for both the Convent of the Mother of God Seeker of the Lost, an urban monastic community, and the Mount Tabor School of Liberal Arts, which provides classical education rooted in Orthodox tradition. Fr. Turbo holds graduate and postgraduate degrees in Addiction Studies and Pastoral Counseling with an emphasis in crisis response and trauma.

Rev./Prof. Paul Siewers is a priest at a mission in Northern Appalachian “Pennsyltucky.” A Professor of English and Orthodox Chaplain at Bucknell University, he heads the Bucknell Program for American Leadership. A past fellow in Religion and Public Life at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton, Fr. Paul previously worked as Urban Affairs Writer at The Sun-Times in Chicago, where he appreciated the legacy of Richard Weaver as a Southern agrarian dwelling in that city. His views are his own; he shares them at his blog Christian Ecopoetics and Apologetic Theology.

Fr. Gabriel Weller is an Archpriest in Mount Crawford, Virginia. Holy Myrrhbearers Orthodox Christian Church, which he has been actively building on almost 8 acres in the Western Central Shenandoah, started as a mission in Harrisonburg in 2012, with the Blessing of Met. Hilarion of blessed memory. Fr. Gabriel is a convert and a Virginia native and has lived in Tidewater and Augusta and Rockingham Counties of the Shenandoah Valley. He spent his early years farming and then installing and servicing electronic fire, security, access control and video surveillance systems before focusing entirely on church life.

Fr. John Whiteford is head priest at St. Jonah Orthodox Church in Spring, Texas, and a co-founder of the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship. He’s a former Nazarene Associate Pastor who in November 1990 converted to the Orthodox Faith soon after completing his B.A. in Theology at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. Father John’s the author of “Sola Scriptura: An Orthodox Analysis of the Cornerstone of Reformation Theology” and the general editor of the “St. Innocent Liturgical Calendar.” You can also read his writings at his blog aptly titled Fr. John Whiteford, as well as his new Substack.

❥ Schedule of Events:

Morning Session at Aquia Church

9 to 9:40 a.m. ● Vladika Jonah: The Forgotten Gospel of Transformation
9:45 to 10:15 a.m. ● Rebecca Dillingham: Building Upon a Southern Ethnos Through True Faith
10:20 to 10:50 a.m. ● Buck Johnson with Protodeacon Patrick Mitchell: Domesticating the Orthobros
10:55 to 11:25 a.m. ● Jay Dyer: Orthodox Apologetics & Philosophy
11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. ● Father Turbo Qualls: The Fire King & the Cotton Rose: An Analysis of the Lost Cause Myth in Contrast to the Lost Battle of Kosovo

Lunch Break

12:20 to 1:25 p.m. ● Catered lunch by Wild Waylon’s BBQ
1:30 to 2 p.m. ● Aquia Church tour

Afternoon Session at Aquia Church

2:05 to 2:35 p.m. ● Fathers Gabriel Weller & John Whiteford: Planting Parishes in the South: Virginia & Texas Experiences
2:40 to 3:10 p.m. ● Father Paul Siewers: Jacobite Appalachians, Orthodox Kingship, & the Mission to America
3:15 to 3:45 ● Jim Jatras & Richard Hines: Is Orthodoxy Too “Foreign”?
3:50 to 4:30 p.m. ● Q&A with speakers

Evening Vespers at St. Herman’s Church

5 p.m. ● 12-minute drive to the St. Herman’s parish from Aquia Church: See “Locations & Directions” section below for more info.

❥ Locations & Directions:

Aquia Episcopal Church is the location of the 3rd Annual Conference. Address is 2938 Richmond Highway (formerly Jefferson Davis Highway), Stafford, VA 22554. Here is the Maps link.

We strongly encourage all Conference participants to attend Saturday-evening Vespers and Sunday-morning Liturgy at St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church. Address is at Clifton Chapel Lane, Stafford, VA 22554. Here is the Maps link from Aquia Church to St. Herman’s and here are general directions.

❥ Optional Excursion on Friday:

The day prior to the Conference, we’re planning a history excursion to Stratford Hall and to George Washington Birthplace, both of which are located about an hour from the event location. The outing will run approximately 10 am to 5 pm with a break for fast-friendly lunch in between (location TBD, paid individually). Cost of the audio tour at Stratford Hall is $14 (paid at the door) and Washington’s birthplace is free. Please indicate below your interest before August 20 to give us a count for our discounted reservations!

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❥ Lodging Accomodations (All Within a Mile of Aquia Church):

Comfort Inn Quantico (.6mi)
1-540-659-8999 / 20 Salisbury Dr, Stafford, VA 22554-1588

Fairfield Inn & Suites Quantico Stafford (.6mi)
1-540-720-1299 / 2784 Richmond Hwy, Stafford, VA 22554

Hampton Inn Stafford/Quantico & Conference Center (.2mi)
1-855-605-0317 / 2965 Richmond Hwy, Stafford, VA 22554

Holiday Inn Express Quantico-Stafford (.6mi)
1-888-465-4329 / 15 Salisbury Dr, Stafford, VA 22554

Home2 Suites by Hilton Stafford Quantico (.4mi)
1-855-618-4702 / 3051 Richmond Hwy, Stafford, VA 22554

Staybridge Suites Quantico-Stafford (.2mi)
1-877-859-5095 / 2996 Richmond Hwy, Stafford, VA 22554

TownePlace Suites Quantico Stafford (.6mi)
1-540-657-1990 / 2772 Richmond Hwy, Stafford, VA 22554

❥ Theme:

“The Cradle and the Crucible: Ludwell’s Virginia Through War and Revolution, & the Future of Orthodoxy in the South & in America“

As the “the first, largest, and most prosperous of the British colonies in America,” Virginia is known as “The Mother of States.” She is the cradle of the Cavalier high culture and was nicknamed “Old Dominion” by King Charles II in recognition of her loyalty to the British Crown, particularly during the English Civil War. She is the “Mother of Presidents,” with four of the first five presidents of These United States calling Virginia home. Hence, Virginia is the crucible where the American identity was forged. Today, some might even call that a Southern identity and both are partially true because there would simply be no “America” without the Old Dominion, her statesmen and soldiers, her traditions and folkways, her letters and literature, her character and history, and her unique ethos and “older religiousness.”

Virginia also happens to be the birthplace and home of Col. Phillip Ludwell III, the first Orthodox convert in North America. If you want to know more about why this Cavalier is the Fellowship’s namesake, please read here.

Interestingly, the above boyhood portrait (other than the cross and text which we of course added) is the only known image of Ludwell. It’s kept at Stratford Hall, which was the plantation of four generations of Virginia’s famous Lee Family and the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. So, why is this rare artifact housed there? Because the historic home was built by Thomas Lee, who married Philip’s sister Hannah Ludwell. Even Philip’s plantation Green Spring in Williamsburg eventually came to be owned by the Lee Family. Virginia roots run deep.

❥ Prayers Appreciated:

❥ History:

You simply cannot avoid history when in Stafford. One prime example being Aquia Church where the Conference is being held. Established in 1667, built in 1751, and then rebuilt in 1757 after a fire, many of its parishioners were signers of the Leedstown Resolutions, a precursor to the Declaration of Independence. It was also the childhood church of George Mason, Founding Father and author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which heavily influenced the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

If you have time while in Stafford, you might want to visit Aquia Creek where there were clashes between Union and Confederate forces during the War Between the States, and from where Aquia sandstone was quarried for building both the White House and U.S. Capitol; the sites where Pocahontas was kidnapped to be used as part of a prisoner exchange between Colonists and the Powhatan, and where Hunter’s Iron Works made arms for the Continental Army; or George Washington’s Ferry Farm where the future general and first president spent his formative years.

Also within about an hour’s drive or less from Stafford are the incredibly haunting battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse and Manassas, as well as George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the aforementioned Stratford Hall.